Artist Statement
In my paintings I explore the possibilities of material and mark making by capturing the
mundane of everyday life. Memory and space create a visual narrative of the physical and
metaphorical ways I navigate the world around me. Space is sometimes a place of comfort or
other times a souvenir of a distant event. The memories I explore can be simultaneously joyful
and melancholy, tender and distant, or hopeful and hopeless. Through my paintings I am
processing and rediscovering the past in a new way through the intimacy and tactility of mark
making. Each work presents a bittersweet narrative where I examine the complex circumstances
that have brought me to a specific moment in time.
Many of the experiences I am drawn to explore the activities and relationships that
inhabit ordinary places. I recall often overlooked moments with family and friends or sometimes
alone. These simple present moments are entangled with a complicated narrative and an
awareness of the larger context bringing me to these instances. From these experiences, I blend
the landscape, architecture, objects and space abstractly to visually represent my recollections. I
reflect on memories where I am visiting a physical space and those where a virtual or digital
space surrounds me. There are times when I can ground myself through my experience within
nature or through time spent with friends and family and others where I remain physically
sedentary, encapsulated with a screen as a means of escape or to bridge the distance between
loved ones.
My images are first constructed through a method of digital drawing and collage of
photographs. Documentation of my everyday life is an important tool for myself to capture
subject matter and create a record of time that is presented through the final paintings. It is also a
way for me to retain a connection with family and friends through the sharing of images from a
distance. From these digital images, I pull pieces of subject matter and marks through drawing
on the surface of canvas. The drawing is emphasized and expanded through thin washes of paint.
The process then becomes about hanging these earliest moves in balance with the material that is
built up over time. Slow meditative sewing is contrasted by rapid automatic drawing, washes of
paint, and impasto. The final image represents the complexities of these narratives through
materiality, mark making, and color: intense vibrant colors are contrasted with desaturated hues,
momentary gesture is contrasted with an outline of the ghost of a digital mark, and thick built up
paint is contrasted with raw untouched canvas. The saturated colors elevate the ordinary and the
mundane to create something that expresses both my subject matter and the personal significance
I feel during these moments. The presence of the digital mark and vibrant color is an important
indicator of my process and the influence of the intangible digital space that is a constant
presence. Through the process of creating, I am coming to terms with my past and navigating the
present by using tangible objects to explore the intangible world.
Biography
Victoria Gonzales is a Fort Worth based artist from San Antonio, TX. She earned her Bachelor of
Fine Arts from Baylor University in 2019 and her Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from the
University of North Texas in 2022. She has exhibited throughout Texas including a solo show at Pencil on
Paper Gallery in 2023 and Arts Fort Worth in 2022, as well as juried exhibitions with 500x Gallery, Art
Room, Greater Denton Arts Council, the Center for Contemporary Arts, and others. In 2020, she was
awarded first place in the Texas National Competition and Exhibition. Victoria is currently an Assistant
Professor of Art at Tarrant County College Northwest.